A Halibut fishing story

I watched a You-Tube video today of a man fishing for Halibut in Alaska. It was a very short video, maybe 1.5 minutes.

Due to the hours of time playing the fish, he said about 8 hours if I remember right, all of the video was shot of him sitting on his kayak holding onto the fish and talking to the camera.

He was breathing hard and you could see the size of the white multi-fingered jig that was still hanging alongside the fish’s mouth. It looked like it might have been close to the size of a one-pound coffee can.

After 8 hours of fighting a single fish I can imagine a person would be breathing hard. You could hear the fear in his voice as he said that he had stabbed the fish once with a knife and that it was bleeding out, but that he didn’t know what he would do if it didn’t die.

It was a very moving video for me, as I have yet to even try fishing from my kayak. At this point I only have the ability to read and listen to stories about kayak fishing and for me, that vicarious experience is enough and is welcome.

I was working today up on a scaffold plank outside in the sun thinking about all of you who were out on the water, feeling the gentle rise and fall of what little swell you were affected by. Smelling the salt air and seeing the sea birds and possibly sea mammals and enjoying nature as only one can on a kayak or a surfboard.

We only have dial-up here in Ferndale, so a 4-minute video takes quite a few minutes to download. I would start one downloading, and then go back to work. Then when I thought it might be done, I would take a short break and come in to watch some kayak fishing. It’s a nice way to break up the workday into segments.

I hope you got out today, because for the next three days it will be rain and wind.
Thanks for all of your stories and information.
David

Where's the video?   

-Allen

OK here is the link.



I was wrong about the 8 hours. I thought I had heard him say that.

He says in the posts under the video that it was 120 lbs. Quite the beast!

Cheers,
David

Pretty sure that's Tom Wallo of Kodiak AK. He posted on PAL's site http://www.kayakfishingzone.com/MainPages/HotBites.html



Z

Yeah, I remember seeing that a week or so ago and whishing he would've got some footage while he was fighting it! Maybe while it was right next to his yak or something. Kind of looks like something out of Man vs. Wild by the way he's describing the whole situation.
Nice friggin fish tough! Jeeez!!

I've been exchanging emails with Tom recently.  Here's a photo of his largest to date ... 156 pounds!!!  He says he's caught 6 butts over 100 pounds up there.  Right on.

-Allen